Phantoms
by WhipOfLightHeartOfSword
Summary: When Byakuya unwittingly revives the trapped souls of the infamous Phantom and his beloved, both he and Aizen find themselves stuck as vessels for the two until they find an end to their imprisonment. But when uneasy truce develops into forbidden love...


**Phantoms**

** Author****:** **WhipOfLightHeartOfSword**

**Rating****: M/R**

** Pairing****: Aizen/Byakuya (more as they become relevant)**

** World****: AU after Rukia is rescued and it is discovered that Aizen is going to try to create the Ouken and kill the Spirit King.** **Also, this story is set entirely within the Bleach Universe- it is NOT a crossover. Please see the summary below for more details. **

**Warnings****: Yaoi, and annoying page breaks as FFnet hates my preferred formatting. **

**Feedback****: Yes please, but NO FLAMES. I don't read them so it would be a waste of your time. You were fairly warned what this story contained. Constructive criticism is very welcomed though. **

** Disclaimer****: B****leach and all the characters and events you see in the anime and/or manga are owned by Tite Kubo, Shonen Jump, and various others—myself not included. **_Le fantôme de l'Opéra_ (The Phantom of the Opera) was a novel written by Gaston Leroux, and famously adapted into the Broadway musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was brought back to the silver screen most recently by director Joel Schumacher in 2004. **Anything else such as but not limited to any original characters and the story premise are mine. No copyright infringement is intended, and no profit is, has, or ever will be made off of this story. This is purely a fan-work done for nothing more than the simple enjoyment of myself and anyone who cares to read it.**

** Full Summary****: There's far more to the 'Phantom of the Opera' than most humans will ever know. The story we know was adapted from a strange tale French novelist Gaston Leroux heard from someone claiming to be a 'shinigami'. The real incident occurred several hundred years ago in the Soul Society, where the Rukon Grand Opera House was set ablaze by a fallen chandelier that many claimed was sabotaged by the mysterious Phantom himself. The discovery that the head of a noble family had been murdered at the same time in the basement ensured the Opera's doom.  
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**Today the building stands as a ruined hulk and a source of local pride to the people of District Five, who adore the unique history it's legend lends to their little corner of Soul Society. Following the destruction caused by the Sword Fiends, Byakuya decides to help the Rukon recover by taking on a humanitarian project, and at the behest of Rukia chooses to fund and oversee restoration of the old Opera, in spite of criticism from the Kuchiki counsel that he's risking more scandal and insult to the family of the Phantom's alleged victim. If only those were the only risks inherent in trespassing in the Opera Ghost's former domain.  
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**The Phantom, as he finds, was no mere figment of the imagination. And the famed Opera star Sumiko was not as definitive in her choice of suitors as history lead everyone to believe. The two are determined to reunite and spend eternity together, and despite the Phantom's soul being trapped in Hueco Mundo by his jealous rival, time and distance have not cooled their love. Taking advantage of Byakuya's reopening of the Opera, and Aizen's snooping around in the catacombs beneath Las Noches, the two take possession of Byakuya and Sousuke's bodies, so that they may be together once more. Now, Sousuke and Byakuya must work together to rid themselves of the unwanted tagalongs who keep hijacking them regardless of their status as mortal enemies. The alternative is to be caught fraternizing and each lose everything-Byakuya his honor, allies, friends and family, and Aizen his chance at overthrowing the Soul King. But the prolonged period of forced alliance is not without other consequences, as the two find themselves grappling with burgeoning feelings of their own; feelings no enemies should ever feel for each other...  
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**Author's Note: Yes this fic has quite the long summary, but in trying to establish how this plot's going to work, it was necessary. This little gem of an adventure was inspired while I was reading Spunky0ne's amazing 'Petals and Sand' fic, and listening to Nightwish's metal cover of The Phantom of the Opera's title song. Before then I had never read a Bya/Aizen fic, and wasn't even certain the pairing was viable, but Spunky has proven that such a delicious forbidden love can absolutely work, and the mental image of a masked Aizen serenading Byakuya to come with him (courtesy of my choice of music) was just too smexy for me to ignore. And so here we are. I now invite you to sit back and enjoy.  
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**For the moment the Prologue and Chapter 1 have been posted together, due to the Prologue being so brief. Another thing of note is that I'm including details from the novel and 1925 silent film that never made it into Webber's play, which I felt would make the backstory more interesting.  
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**~*~Prologue~*~**

Several hundred years ago…

_Screams rang out into the night. The darkness was pierced by a fierce, flickering orange that chased away the shadows and lit the area almost as brightly as if it were day. People dashed madly down the streets; some fleeing for the protection of the Seiretei, others for the outer districts of the Rukon, which for once might really have been the safer place to be. _

_Children cried and sobbed in fear. Men shouted for help. Noble ladies tripped and tore their expensive kimono and sprained their delicate ankles in their desperate bid for safety. A few hid themselves away in their decorated palanquins, only to abandon them in frustration and panic scant minutes later. Dignity was shamelessly tossed aside as they flash stepped wildly away, too terrified to tolerate being cooped up inside a tiny box where there was even the slightest chance they could become trapped. Behind them, bright tongues of red and orange and white licked at the starry sky above as the Rukon Grand Opera House burned. _

_Amidst the panic and chaos of the patrons trying to save themselves and the local residents attempting to get help before the fire could spread to other buildings, two figures staggered down the front steps of the main entrance, coughing and hacking from the smoke clogging their lungs. Logic told them to flee, but their hearts cried out their dismay and disbelief that the dream they had worked so hard to realize was being reduced to mere cinders and ash before them. _

_One dropped to his knees, uncaring that they were still too close to the blazing complex. _

_"Ruined! We are ruined!" he howled. _

_"There is nothing to be done. We must move on," his companion urged, tugging at his arm to get him to stand. The first man obstinately refused. _

_"Do you know what will happen to us now?" he cried. "We'll be blamed for all of this, us! All because we refused to give in to a prank and give up money that was hard-earned and rightfully ours!"_

_"We'll be dead if you keep sitting there!" his companion kept on tugging. "The roof is about to go! We can't be here if one of those statues comes do—"_

_ He never got to finish his sentence, as a tremendous _CRACK!_ rent the air above them. Both men looked up in horror to see a magnificently cast bronze statue of the Greek god Apollo—lyre held gallantly aloft and Python coiled around his feet—plunging towards them, a portion of the roof coming away from the main structure with it. _

_"Look out!"_

_The one who was already on his feet was barely able to leap out of the way. Skidding and tumbling, he eventually came to a halt facedown on the cobblestones surrounding the Opera. Groaning, he lifted his face, and stared in dismay at the form of his colleague, blood spreading in a slowly expanding circle around his body, which had been crushed beneath the statue. _

_"Asai!" he screamed. But it was too late, and he knew it.  
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_Tears streaming down his face from grief and the heat of the flames, the man dragged himself to his feet and began to limp away as swiftly as he could. _

_Behind him the great scion of art and culture—once destined to nurture the creativity and talents of both the Rukon's progeny and the Seiretei's, to bring employment and better economy to the poor, and give the rich a reason to invest in something other than their own homes and draw them out of their gated communities—was consumed. _

_It wasn't long before the calls for help were answered and fire brigades formed. Shinigami—especially those with water or ice element zanpakutou—shunpo-ed in at top speed from the Seiretei. Healers arrived to treat the wounded, survivors were searched for, and bodies were retrieved from the outer part of the partially collapsed building. _

_When the blaze had finally died and the remains of the buildings were cooled enough, officials carefully conducted their investigation. _

_~*~page break~*~  
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_Watarase Masato, Taichou of Squad Ten, stood inside the ruined theatre and gazed around at the devastation of the formerly grand space. The red upholstery and shined brass edges of the seats were now nothing more than ash and blackened metal. The stage made for uncertain footing, both from the fire and the trap doors that lay open as men working below the stage had opened them to see what the commotion was and then left them open as they too had run for their lives. The once-gleaming filigree statues decorating the hall now resembled tortured demons from hell, and more than one of the boxes as well as the balcony had come crashing down as the flames had weakened them until they could no longer support their own weight. _

_In front of him, the taichou gazed sadly at the half-melted, charred, and twisted heap that was once a magnificent crystal chandelier. He had seen it before in its full glory when he had come with his friends to watch the Opera perform his favorite play. Now it was nothing more than a sad reminder of what once was as it lay shattered upon the ground. _

_"What have you found so far?" he asked his 3rd seat, as he sensed the man approaching him from behind. _

_"We're about to cut down the remains of the chain from the ceiling, but we already retrieved the other end from the hoist and from what we can tell it looks like it may have been tampered with."_

_"May have been?" Masato repeated. _

_His 3rd seat nodded. "As best as we can tell. We're hoping the end that got caught on the support ring will give us a better idea when we put them side by side and do a comparison. Unfortunately, with the damage from the fire it's hard to tell."_

_Masato nodded, and glanced upwards as he observed two of his subordinates focusing their reiatsu beneath their feet to allow them to hover near the large iron ring that the end of the chandelier chain had tangled around. Carefully they retrieved it and carried it in gloved hands to the ground, where their captain and the 3rd seat gathered closer to take a look. _

_"I can't tell anything, Taichou, can you?" the 3rd seat looked at Masato._

_Masato shook his head as he eyed the end of the chain, which had softened from the extreme heat and warped as it had cooled. "The fire was too intense. Whatever evidence there might have been is gone." _

_"What's frightening is that this chain is iron," one of the shinigami said. "For it to be twisted like this means that the fire must have been at least as hot as a forge to get the metal to soften. Is that why…?" he trailed off, looking down at the ash beneath their feet._

_Masato sighed and followed his gaze with sad eyes. "Is that why we've only recovered_ some_ of the bodies of those on the 'Missing' list? Yes, most likely it is. With the heat of this blaze anyone stuck close to the epicenter was likely cremated."_

_"But what about that noble everyone's worried about? His brother was missing too until a couple of hours ago, but he said he'd gone to help that actress that fell and got out through the cellars. Think the missing one might have followed his brother instead of waiting here for him?" the other shinigami piped up. _

_Masato took a deep breath before giving his answer. His primary job was to investigate the cause of the fire. Obviously the chandelier hitting the ground had started the blaze itself, but what they were supposed to be doing was figuring out _how_ the great crystal ornament had come down in the first place. _

_His secondary mission—which was being treated as though it were really his first priority—was helping to locate the missing noble. Though he adamantly kept his men searching for clues to conclusively prove how the chandelier came down, he'd been forced to relinquish his fukutaichou and several higher ranked officers so they could aid the other teams in the search for the lost Head of the Enomoto clan. It was an irritation that he should be made to lose personnel when there were plenty of other teams available, but he bit his tongue and refrained from saying anything unflattering that might somehow get back to the already testy and short-tempered ears of the aristocracy. _

_"If he did then it would be a good thing in the sense that he'd have escaped the blaze. At that point we'd only have to search the cellars and the surrounding areas and hope he's not lying unconscious or hurt somewhere. Those cellars are a literal labyrinth, so there's a fair chance we'll find him wandering around in circles down there. A lost man found would be far better than a corpse. But if he did get stuck in this room or near it, then we'd better hope there might be a trace of reiryoku or reiatsu left so we can let the family know for sure."_

_He gave a smile that managed to be grim and yet encouraging at the same time. "But let's not worry about that for now. There's plenty of shinigami on the job, and from the barking I heard an hour ago, it would seem they brought in the soul hounds to help. Let's focus on finding out why the chandelier came down, so we can report a completed investigation to Soutaichou."_

_The three standing with him reluctantly nodded, obviously thinking they'd gotten shortchanged collecting evidence while everyone else got to go out and participate in the more exciting search and rescue. _

_Masato ignored them and launched into a review of the case so far. He wasn't trying to be insensitive to the plight of the Enomoto noble or his family, but strange and frightening rumors concerning the Opera had been flying around for months, and he was determined to accurately rule out the possibility that a more sinister motive had been behind the devastating blaze. He was content to allow others to carry out the search for the missing man while he completed his inquiry. Now if only he could get his remaining subordinates to be as on-task as he was. _

_"So, the Opera's only about thirty years old. Forty if you count how long it took to build. With that in mind, we know the chain holding the chandelier in place was the original, but is recorded as still being in good enough condition not to need replacing. The question therefore is this- was that report lying about the chain's strength, at which point neglect allowed it to deteriorate and break on its own? Or did someone tamper with it and deliberately cause the chandelier to come down? If it's the first then we'll interview the surviving management to pinpoint the ones most responsible, but if it's a case of sabotage then we must ask ourselves who would want to cause such devastation to the Opera, and why."_

"I'll bet it was the Opera Ghost," the shinigami holding the chain said.

_Before the taichou could respond the 3rd seat scoffed. "There's no such thing as the Opera Ghost. That's just the excuse the stage hands and dancers use to get out of work and be lazy."_

_"But then why is it they never sell seats in Box Five? The few times people _have_ sat in there, they've always come out swearing that they'll never buy those seats again. I remember one person sending in a letter to the editor of the newspaper that the Opera was cursed and it was a sign that the Gotei were useless if they were going to allow such a haunting to continue," the second unseated officer said._

_"Yes, and our squad was the one to send people in to see if there was maybe a hollow causing trouble. They found nothing, so it's probably just an elaborate publicity hoax," the 3rd seat explained. _

_"But what about the chief scene-shifter who got hung in the cellar where they keep the old scenery?" the chain holder asked._

_The seated officer shrugged. "Suicide, of course."_

_"So you're saying corpses are able to cut themselves down and hide the evidence?" the shinigami argued. _

_"And that performance where Kameko-dono's voice croaked," the other chimed in. "They say there was a voice echoing through the theatre saying that it had instructed Box Five to be left empty."_

_"And what about the notes?"_

_By now the 3rd seat was beginning to look annoyed and decreasingly patient with the underlings. Matsuro stepped forward to put an end to the argument before a shouting match ensued. These rumors were the very things that made him want to investigate the cause of the fire in the first place, but he couldn't expect much headway to be made if his subordinates were too busy debating to do their jobs._

_"Now, now, we've all heard the 'Phantom' rumors, but until we have reason to believe he does exist and did have something to do with this—" his sentence remained unfinished, as a Squad Five shinigami burst into the room. _

_"Waterase Taichou! You and your men are needed in the cellars! The Enomoto Clan Head's been found! Somebody murdered him!" _

_Matsuro's three subordinates looked to him for permission, and he gave a nod that they could precede him to the new crime scene. They bolted, the one unseated youth carelessly dropping the chandelier chain as he went._

_The taichou sighed in frustration at the new delay. Each moment lost meant a decreased probability that he would find the answers he was looking for. _

_But orders were orders, and reluctantly he followed the path his men had taken to the cellars, hoping that there would still be enough evidence left for him to finish what he'd started after he'd seen to the discovery of the body of the high ranking clan leader. _

**~*~Chapter 1- Legends Are Stories That Are True~*~**

Present day…

"He's coming over to you, Rukia!"

"I got it," the dark-haired shinigami leapt from the edge of the rooftop she had been running along, gracefully dropping down in front of the fleeing hollow.

"Mai, Sode no Shirayuki," she intoned. The hollow paused, waiting to see what kind of attack she would send its way.

It was not expecting said attack to come from directly beneath it.

"Some no mai, tsuki shiro!"

The creature was too slow in leaping out of the way. The column of ice encased it, creating a glittering, glowing pillar in the moonlight for a few brief moments before it collapsed. Rukia darted in between the chunks of ice to the dazed hollow and cleaved its mask, finishing it off.

"Nice," Renji said, as he and Ichigo joined her. Even with the momentary lull in attacks from Aizen's forces, Karakura's high concentration of spirit particles still attracted hollows by the dozens, forcing shinigami of every rank stationed there to run nightly patrols to keep their numbers in check.

Rukia allowed Sode no Shirayuki to return to its sealed form, and sheathed it. "Did you finish off the other one?"

"Yup, while you were bringing down yours," Ichigo nodded.

"If that's the last of them, I think we should head in," Renji yawned, reaching his hands over his head as he stretched. "I'd like to crash for at least a few hours before Urahara has the kids harassing me to do last-minute chores. And I have to report back to Kuchiki Taichou before noon."

After weeks of being stationed in the Living World, both Renji and Rukia had been ordered to report home for a while. Feeling that they had sufficiently shown around the shinigami newer to the area, Yamamoto was beginning to switch out the officers that were part of Hitsugaya's advance troops with fresh personnel. The goal was to have as many shinigami familiarized with Karakura as possible before the final showdown with Aizen occurred. The two would be leaving in the morning, and so they had decided to spend one final night hanging out with Ichigo before they departed, as it wasn't clear how long it would be before they had the opportunity to spend time together again.

Of course, it just wouldn't be a proper send-off without the beeping of their soul phones and Ichigo's combat pass to alert them to the presence of no less than six hollows near the elementary school. Six very familiar hollows. This particularly nasty group had been harassing souls in the area for a couple of weeks, and not one of them had been successfully exorcised yet. Each of the three shinigami had come close each encounter, only to find themselves ultimately thwarted by the crafty creatures. So naturally none of them could pass up a final opportunity at victory, and a last chance to fight side-by-side before their respective lives drew them apart.

Ichigo was particularly happy to have been able to able to spend those few hours fighting at Renji's side, watching each other's backs. He'd never admit it, but the redhead's departure the next day was going to be particularly bittersweet for him.

"Ugh, by the time I get back to the Shoten it'll be too late for dinner. The kids'll never get off my case if I try to make something this late," Renji groused.

"Bet you can't wait to get back to the Seiretei and have a break from Jinta's teasing," Ichigo grinned.

Renji pulled a face. "Well at least Kuchiki Taichou's harassing me isn't just for sport."

"Hey, be nice to my brother," Rukia protested. "He works even harder than you do!"

"Never said he didn't, just that he doesn't give me much less grief than those kids," Renji shrugged. Ichigo laughed. Rukia growled and would have launched into a proper tirade of reasons why her friend should be a good little fukutaichou and not speak badly about his captain, except that her stomach chose that moment to growl also. Blushing in embarrassment, she crossed her arms over her midsection.

Ichigo chuckled. "Let's go, before Kon and both of your gigai trash my room."

The trio launched into shunpo and returned to the rooftops, where they could cut straight across the few blocks to the Kurosaki Clinic rather than zigzagging through the streets.

"So what do you two think you'll be doing once you get back to the Seiretei?" Ichigo asked, making conversation as they ran. "Aside from paperwork for Byakuya."

"Training the new recruits probably. Or there's always the chance I'll get sent on one of the scouting missions to Hueco Mundo. Who knows?" Renji replied.

"I don't really know what Ukitake Taichou'll have me doing. I'm not a seated officer, so I might be more likely to be stuck in a holding pattern for now," Rukia mused. "Although… Nii-sama mentioned that he was looking for prospects for a new humanitarian project, after our zanpakutou and the Sword Fiends made such a mess of both the Seiretei and the Rukon. I could always help him come up with something and then volunteer."

"Think he might choose a project in Inuzuri?" Ichigo asked, knowing that both his friends always had their eyes and ears out to help the street kids and poor families of the district they had grown up in.

"Maybe," Rukia nodded. "I'd like it if he did. Of course, we'd have to come up with what the nobles would consider a decent proposal before the clan elders would even _think_ of approving it, so it'll take some brainstorming to figure out something that'll both benefit people in Inuzuri _and_ make the councilors happy."

"It doesn't have to be Inuzuri specifically," Renji added. "Anything that'll help street kids with spiritual powers in any part of the Rukon survive easier would be great."

"Well, between you two and Byakuya, I'm sure you'll come up with something," Ichigo encouraged, which was all he could do as he didn't know the Rukon as well as those two did and thus had less frame of reference for suggesting ways living conditions in it could be improved.

The rest of the way home was spent listening to the wind whistle past his ears, whispering as it ruffled the folds of his and his companions' shihakushou. Ichigo breathed deep and relished in the moment, wishing it would last longer. He'd never admit it out loud, but things were about to get very lonely for him when Rukia and Renji went home. If it were his choice, he'd be going with them. But he couldn't and so he'd just have to content himself with whatever time his friends were able to spend with him.

When they arrived back at his house a few minutes later, the trio was not expecting to be greeted by the rare sounds drifting up from the living room of Yuzu and Karin yelling at each other.

"I'm telling you, Yuzu, it's Gerard Butler!"

"Uh-uh Karin! Michael Crawford!"

"Do you need your ears checked? Butler's voice is way sexier! It's got that edge to it like a rock star's!"

"You just like him because of that Spartan movie! And anyway, the Phantom's not supposed to be a sexy rock star! He's supposed to be a death-like figure with the sweet voice of an angel! Even in latex scars and makeup, Butler's too pretty!"

"_What_ are those two arguing about?" Rukia asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow as she trieed to follow both sides of the debate and failed utterly.

Renji shook his head as he climbed through the open window and retrieved his gigai, while Ichigo growled in agitation. "They're being obnoxious fangirls, is what. Let's go, we can grab a snack from the kitchen and remind them there are people in the house who don't give a shit who they like while we're at it."

"Please do," Kon moaned, as Ichigo put him back into his stuffed body. The lion plushie buried his head under the teenager's pillow. "They've been at it forever," he complained exaggeratedly. "I can't take it anymore."

"Oh, quit whining," Ichigo rolled his eyes, as he yanked open his door and stalked out into the hallway. Rukia and Renji looked at each other and shrugged, still not sure what was going on, but they followed him down the stairs anyway.

The twins were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, glaring at each other. Well, Karin was glaring; Yuzu was frowning with acute disapproval. The image on the TV screen was frozen as the girls had hit the 'pause' button so they could carry out their disagreement without missing the movie they were watching. On the screen, a dark clad man with slicked-back black hair and a white mask covering the right half of his face stood surrounded by candles, while in the background the blurry figure of a dark-haired woman dressed in white sat in a boat with a lantern, mist curling across the still, glassy waters beneath her.

"Why is it you two can't agree to disagree?" Ichigo groused as he came into the room.

"Karin's got no taste in vocalists!" Yuzu complained.

"I do so!"

"I don't care! I just want to know why you two can't just watch the movie without bothering everyone else in the house!" Ichigo glared at both of them. His shinigami friends watched the standoff between the three siblings for a moment, before Renji's attention zeroed in on the picture on the screen. His brow furrowed as curiosity drew him closer.

"Hey Rukia, doesn't this look familiar somehow?" the redhead crouched in front of the TV, pressing his face close as though it would help him figure out what about the picture was jogging his memory.

The Thirteenth Divisioner came to stand beside him, head tilted to the side thoughtfully as she gazed at the masked man on the screen.

"Yea… it does! But from where?"

Yuzu overheard her and squealed, momentarily abandoning the argument with her siblings. "Oh wow! You two know 'The Phantom of the Opera'?"

Both shinigami whirled around and stared at the youngest Kurosaki with somewhat dumbfounded expressions.

"The… Phantom of the Opera?" Ichigo was not expecting Rukia to look or sound so surprised, or for Renji's eyes to widen marginally, though he said nothing.

"What do you mean, 'do they know'?" Karin demanded, too focused on her sister to notice their guests' expressions. "Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Phantom' is like, Broadway's longest running show! Anyone who's been around theater has at least heard of it, even if they haven't seen it."

"Well Rukia never said anything about liking it, and I play the soundtrack all the time!" Yuzu defended.

Renji scowled. "Well, I don't know about this 'Broadway' or 'Webber' person, but I do remember that being the name of a book a while back."

"Huh?"

Yuzu and Karin forgot about their irritation at each other for a moment, looking at the two shinigami like they were aliens. "I can't believe you know the book but not the play," Yuzu finally confessed in slight awe. "With most people it's the other way around."

"You're missing out," Karin added, turning to her brother. "Yo Ichigo, why don't you and your friends watch the movie with us? I'm not a musical person myself but even I have to admit no one should pass up seeing this one at least once."

"Yea, why don't you?" Yuzu encouraged, looking pleadingly at the two shinigami. "Please, Rukia? You said you were leaving tomorrow, so it's our last chance to spend some time with you. And you just _have_ to see the Phantom!"

Ichigo scowled, not wanting to stick around if his sisters were just going to get into another argument over which Phantom portrayer was better, but his friends beat him to the response.

"Sure," Rukia smiled. "I'd love to see how the book and the movie are different."

"Me too," Renji agreed, surprising Ichigo.

"Didn't you say you had to get home? You were just complaining about people getting on your case for getting in too late," Ichigo challenged him, in a bid not to have to sit through two hours of listening to a chick whine about how she couldn't choose between two guys even though one creeped her the hell out.

Renji flashed his patented shit-eating grin, the one Ichigo secretly suspected he might have picked up from hanging out with Zaraki too much. "All the more reason to put it off for a little while longer. You don't mind, do you?"

The carrot top rolled his eyes and trudged off to the kitchen. He returned moments later with snacks for everyone and resignedly plopped down on the couch next to Karin. He knew that he was going to get out-voted and didn't feel like trying to evict Renji when he'd obviously already made up his mind to stay, especially since it gave him an excuse to hang out with his friend a bit longer. Chick-flick aside, he was only acting irritated. He'd never admit it out loud, but despite the violent beginnings of their relationship, Ichigo had come to find over the last few months that the redhead had forged himself a special place in the teenager's heart, and he'd miss him somehow even more so than he would Rukia when the senkaimon closed behind them the next day. So for the sake of keeping up appearances he'd bitch and moan, but inwardly he was pleased he'd get to enjoy the extra time spent with the fukutaichou.

"Fine, whatever. Just wake me up when it's over."

"Yay! Rukia, come sit next to me," Yuzu patted the couch cushion next to her. "You'll love this! It's not the same story as the book, and this actor's not my favorite Phantom, but it's still really beautiful."

"Oh great, here we go," Ichigo cast his eyes up at the ceiling in exasperation, as Karin's eyes took on that glint that warned she was a hair's breadth from firing back if Yuzu dared insult an actor she liked. "Damn fangirls."

Renji took a seat on Ichigo's other side and Karin hit a button on the remote to send the movie back to the beginning before hitting 'play'. For the next two hours and fifteen minutes, Ichigo expected to pass out on the couch from boredom, as he wasn't really into the movie like his siblings were. However, he found himself staying awake through it anyway.

It wasn't the movie itself that was to blame. What was keeping him awake instead was watching his friends' reactions to it.

Throughout the story, Rukia and Renji kept exchanging odd looks, which conveyed anything from acute interest to confusion to what might have been approval. A couple of times he could tell that one or the other was barely managing to keep from exclaiming over something, and once Rukia even shifted her foot over and kicked Renji 'accidentally', to get him to shut up when he seemed about to actually say something.

If Yuzu and Karin noticed anything, they probably just thought that the two were trying not to start criticizing the differences between book and movie, but the substitute shinigami knew better. As soon as the movie was over and he could get his friends away from his sisters, he had every intention of finding out just what had them worked up over a musical of all things.

When at last the ending credits began to roll, Ichigo's sisters said their 'good night's while he, Rukia, and Renji headed back up to his room.

"Okay, spill," Ichigo said as soon as the door closed behind them. "What's up with that movie that made you guys so interested in it?"

"Give me a break, you'd be interested too if you came to the Soul Society and saw one of your world's most infamous unsolved mysteries acted out for entertainment," Rukia declared.

Ichigo's brow furrowed. "Unsolved mysteries? _The Phantom of the Opera_? You gotta be kidding; you just saw the whole thing! There's no mystery to it!"

The noble shinigami shook her head. "That's where you're wrong. That movie we just watched is a really good re-enacting of a local folk legend from the Rukon. Except that it assumes a lot of things about what happened and left out several huge details, including the murder of a prominent noble."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ichigo held up his hands. "Back up. Are you trying to tell me the Phantom is real? It's fiction! The guy who wrote the book was a French detective novelist. I remember Yuzu gushing over the fact that he actually studied the real Paris Opera House to use as the setting."

"Never heard of the term 'based on a true story' have you?" Renji smirked.

Ichigo glared at him. "Stop talking in circles and fucking explain to me how it is some fictional play in my world is actually a story from the Soul Society," he growled. The teenager's patience with people was never long-lived, and it pissed him off when people would drag things out instead of just getting to the point.

"It's not that difficult to understand," Rukia answered. "Growing up in the Rukon, you get to hear local legends and folk tales just like you do in this world. Well, one of the most infamous involved a figure we also called the Phantom of the Opera."

"Wait, since when does Soul Society have an opera?"

"Since about three or four centuries ago. And it's the Rukon Grand Opera, to be exact," Renji said. "It was in District Five, or at least it used to be. After the disaster it closed down. Nothing but the building is left, and even that's still got fire damage and is probably half-rotted by now."

"I don't remember ever seeing anything that looked like an opera house when I came to the Soul Society," Ichigo challenged, slightly suspicious that they might be pulling his leg.

"Of course you wouldn't have seen it. I don't think you've ever been to that part of the Rukon," Rukia explained. "Every time you come, you always seem to enter by way of the West Rukon. The Rukon Grand Opera's on the East side. There's no way you would have seen the building with the Seiretei standing in the way."

Now Ichigo's interest was piqued. "So then what's up with this Phantom legend, and is it really the same one we know in this world? Is it even possible for stories from the Soul Society to cross over to the Living World, or was it just coincidence that the author of our 'Phantom' wrote a similar story?"

Renji shook his head. "No one really knows how it got from the Soul Society over to the Living World. The story's most heard in the Rukongai, especially in East District Five where the old Opera House is. The only traffic between the worlds normally are konso-ed souls on their way _to _the Rukon, souls that died in the Rukon and have entered back into the death/rebirth cycle, and shinigami. Shinigami are the only ones who should theoretically have the capability of relaying any information about the Soul Society, but they are forbidden from doing so by law. You and your friends are exceptions since you are counted as official allies of the Seiretei," he shrugged. "No one wants to risk getting dragged into Central 46 and jailed, and it's not like humans are likely to believe us anyway if we just walked up to them and started chatting about some spiritual world. So personally I have doubts that it was a shinigami."

"On rare occasions nobles also take holidays in the Living World, either just for a change of scenery or if political situations get too heated and it becomes necessary for them to lie low for a while," Rukia mused. "Like Rurichiyo and her attendants did. But they really have no motivation to interact with living humans if they can avoid it, and their attendants are the ones making most if not all of the arrangements for their needs while they're here. It's unlikely they or their servants were the medium for the story crossing over for three reasons— One, humans are looked down on by people from Soul Society for being ignorant of the existence of the other worlds, so even the servants of nobles would not want to hang around gossiping with Living World folk. Two, as a condition of being allowed to maintain private senkaimon and being exempt from having their travels recorded by the military, nobles and their servants are supposed to keep a low profile and avoid interaction with humans as much as possible. Lastly, the 'Phantom' legend is actually a sore subject amongst the noble families, so it's not one anyone would be likely to discuss."

"There're a few theories, like the possibility a shinigami got drunk while in a gigai and couldn't keep his mouth shut, but the only thing we know for sure is that it is in fact the same story," Renji finished. "What I find interesting is how the book and that movie we just saw each give pieces of the story people have speculated over for years, but neither tells the whole thing."

"Well, I never read the book, I just took my sisters to see the movie when it came out," Ichigo said. "Yuzu was the one who got so into it she picked up the book and the original Broadway soundtrack, and practically drove us crazy with it. So tell me about the Rukon Opera. If the Rukon's supposed to be the poorest section of the Soul Society, then how is it that they have an opera, and what happened that got this whole Phantom thing going?"

Renji sighed and leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest as he thought back to the tale he'd heard as a kid, and facts he'd picked up here and there over the years.

"It's a long story, and most people only know parts of it. But here's what I remember hearing as a kid— Several centuries ago, a couple of souls who were into the theatre during their time in the Living World got the idea that they would open an opera house in the Rukon district. The project took a while to finish, and actually served as a means of employment for people in the area while it was being built and after it was completed. People from both the Seiretei _and_ the Rukon were allowed to study the arts there, and it stimulated the economy by drawing noble patrons out of the Seiretei to invest in it. Like I said earlier, it was built in East District Five, so crime wasn't a big deterrent for visitors like in the outer districts.

"The Rukon Grand Opera House, as they called it, was absolutely amazing. They somehow managed to obtain seki-seki stone to build it with, which is the reason most of it survived the fire and is still standing today despite how long it's been abandoned. Unfortunately, after only a few decades in business, some strange things started going on. Most people thought it was just pranks the dancers and actors played on each other, but there were rumors about shadowy figures that would appear and disappear out of nowhere, and Box Five—just like in your world's version—was said to be haunted. People would hear disembodied voices, and objects would appear or disappear unexplained if anyone tried to watch any of the performances from it. Once, the manager walked into the box and saw a patron sitting in it, watching the performance in progress. He started to walk away so he wouldn't disturb the man, before he remembered that no one was supposed to be in that box. But when he turned around to chase the stranger out, there was no one there. The only way out of the box was either to jump over the balcony edge, or walk past the manager who was blocking the doorway at the time, and the figure had obviously done neither.

"Same as your version, things got bad when the founders of the Opera decided to sell it and retire. The character you call Christine Daae is a mirror to an amateur singer we called Ine Sumiko. She gave an amazing performance filling in for the lead singer one night, and a new patron from one of the noble clans recognized her as the daughter of a musician a family acquaintance of his used to sponsor. He was Enomoto Seiji, younger brother of the clan head, Masahiro. Supposedly after the performance he tried to ask her out but she refused, even to the point of denying she knew him when he asked if she remembered him. Later on they did begin spending a lot of time together, and there was a scandal over a secret engagement that Masahiro wanted broken up. The night of the disaster Seiji was supposed to run off with Sumiko, but she vanished—supposedly into thin air—while singing. That was when the chandelier came down on top of the patrons and started the great fire. Seiji and Masahiro also vanished, and later Seiji turned up with Sumiko out of nowhere. When questioned they said that a broken latch on a trap door had caused Sumiko to fall, and he had gone to help her and they had escaped from the fire through a cellar entrance. Masahiro's body, however, was found in another cellar next to a subterranean lake that had been constructed by the Opera builders to help seal cracks in the foundation by clogging them with sediment. When they examined the body they realized Masahiro had been murdered. Bruise-marks around his neck showed that he had been held under the water and drowned, and then dumped back onto the shore.

"Masahiro wasn't the first unexplained murder at the Opera. A stage hand had also been killed and strung up in the cellar where scenery was kept, then cut down before authorities could arrive. Strange thing was, the rope he was hung with couldn't be found. People had blamed it on the Opera Ghost, which that stage hand had supposedly seen. They were never able connect the two cases thought. One man who tried to tell them he knew the whole story claimed the ghost was real, that he and Masahiro's murderer were one and the same, and that he knew him because he had helped him get employment at the Opera. That witness was arrested as an accessory and exiled to the Living World, where he vanished. But he claimed the individual who was the Phantom died the night of the fire, and no other evidence ever surfaced to say otherwise, or to point to the real killer."

Rukia took up the tale from there.

"The nobles were furious. One of the managers was killed trying to escape the blaze, but the surviving one claimed that someone had stolen a considerable amount of money from them the night of the fire, which was why they were absent from the performance when Ine Sumiko vanished. When the man who was arrested said that the ghost was an Opera employee, the nobles turned to the surviving Opera personnel to give him up, believing they were shielding one of their own from the law. There was no evidence that could be used to arrest anyone else for hiding a killer, but the nobles were never satisfied that people had all these tall tales to tell about ghosts but nothing that could help bring a murderer to trial. They were especially angry when the Opera employees pointed the finger at Seiji and the managers for angering the ghost and instigating the tragedy.

"In the end the Opera was simply abandoned. The surviving manager had lost his fortune and wanted nothing more to do with it, and no noble wanted to invest in it as they all believed the people of the Rukon to be criminals. The Rukon people were outraged at being accused when their lives had just literally gone up in smoke, since most in that area made their living somehow or another from the Opera.

"Seiji and Sumiko stayed in the Seiretei and were married. Sumiko never returned to the Rukon again, so no one but the authorities were ever able to question if she had really fallen, or if she was covering up for the Phantom. It was said that when she vanished the lights went out for literally an eye-blink, and no one actually saw how she'd left the stage. They just knew that one moment she was in front of them singing, then it was dark, then the lights were on again and the stage was empty. The belief was that the Phantom had fallen in love with her angelic voice and had kidnapped her and dragged her to his home beneath the earth. They theorized that Seiji had discovered its location and gone after Sumiko, and that they hadn't come up from the cellars later because it had been a convenient escape route from beneath the stage, but because they were trying to get away from the Phantom's lair."

"Like I said earlier, because it's made of seki-seki stone, the majority of the structure survived the fire, and still stands in District Five," Renji interjected. "But no one will have anything to do with it because of the fear that the Phantom still lives there, or that there's something else equally dangerous in it. One brave group tried to go down into the cellars and investigate about fifty years after the tragedy, but they never returned and their bodies weren't found, and people have been too afraid to go in there since. There's also rumors that the night Sumiko died, a cloaked figure was seen prowling around the building. But of course when people tried to investigate, no one was there."

"Then in 1909 (1) word got back to the Seiretei that a French novelist in the Living World had published a story called the 'Phantom of the Opera'. The nobles initially took it as an insult to the memory of one of their unavenged fallen, until it became apparent that the book was unpopular and not a completely accurate retelling anyway, so they dismissed it. No one in the Seiretei's really paid much attention to it since. Now it's back to being just another folk legend of the Rukon," Rukia concluded.

A heavy silence fell over the room as Ichigo mulled the tale over in his head and Rukia and Renji were content to let themselves be lost in old memories from their childhoods, and the frightening tales their elders had used to try and scare them into not wandering where children had no business wandering. After digesting the information for several minutes, Ichigo finally spoke.

"I thought it was impossible for ghosts to exist in Soul Society because it's the spiritual world, so technically, everyone there is a ghost. How is it then that people would be willing to buy into all this Phantom nonsense?"

Renji shrugged. "People have to come up with _some_ way to explain things that have no explanation. And there have been more than enough frightening, unexplained events in that place to start that line of thinking."

Ichigo still looked skeptical. "It sounds kind of ridiculous that they'd allow such a place to just stay there. I know seki-seki rock can't be destroyed with spiritual attacks, but can't they just use old-fashioned physical force to break it down? I mean, they had to do something to get it shaped into building material. If it's really that dangerous, then why not take it down so people can build homes there and not have to worry about any one else getting hurt or killed?"

Rukia and Renji were taken aback.

"That opera house is one of the grandest structures in Soul Society! The only ones that come even close are in the Seiretei, and even then, few of them have the same level of artistry and grandeur put into them. It's also practically a historical landmark! Think about the buildings you living humans work so hard to preserve; a lot of them have been through some kind of tragedy or another, and many of them are rumored to be haunted, but you don't tear them down because it just adds to their history!" Rukia declared in an outraged voice.

"Yeesh," Ichigo blinked. "Y'know, for someone who wasn't born into the Kuchiki clan, you sure got that history obsession going. Is that a new thing, or were you always like this?"

Rukia eyed him appraisingly, not sure if she'd just been insulted or not. "So what? It's not a crime to want to see historical sites preserved."

"I visited East District Five once because I was curious and wanted to see it," Renji said, putting his two cents in. "The people there practically identify themselves by that Opera, whether it's in use or not. I agree with Rukia—it's what their community was built around; they'd never forgive anyone who tried to tear it down."

"Then why not try and restore it for real and get it up and running again?" Ichigo asked.

Renji rolled his eyes. "Weren't you paying attention? We just said that it's dangerous. People have disappeared trying to investigate it!"

"But were they shinigami, or just normal souls who got gutsy and stupid?" Ichigo challenged.

"I—I don't know, actually," Renji confessed.

"They were locals with no spiritual powers," Rukia chimed in. "At least, that's what the reports said when I looked the 'Phantom' case up in the archives once. They were boasting about showing the Opera Ghost up while out drinking with friends, and then were reported missing a few days later. Some shinigami from Squad Eight were sent to investigate. One of the missing men was known for wearing a blue scarf around his neck, and it was found on the stage in the theater. His body wasn't, though."

"But there's no evidence he was actually killed," Ichigo clarified. "Then it sounds to me like he and his pals mighta just gotten scared and run off somewhere. Them being cowards and not wanting to show their faces in that part of town again doesn't mean anything happened."

"True, but it's been a great deterrent to keep people out of there," Renji said.

"Whatever, it's still just a waste of space and an accident waiting to happen—again," Ichigo insisted. "I don't get why someone hasn't done something about it instead of just letting it sit there. The opera house in the movie was practically its own city for all the different jobs it gave people. It even had dorms and a school! Better they clean it out, fix it up and let the past put itself to rest while people actually get to make use of it again. There wouldn't be so many orphans starving on the streets if they could work there for room and board and to go to school, and you'd have an excuse to get the place in shape so it'll really last if the people in that part of town like it so much. Jeez, if you guys wanted a project to volunteer for, why not volunteer for that?"

Rukia opened her mouth to retort, only to close it again as the carrot-top's words really registered. She and Renji stared at him for a moment in total shock, as if they couldn't believe what had just come out of his mouth. Ichigo looked back and forth between them in confusion, unsure what he'd done to warrant the looks and the unexpected silence.

"What? What'd I say?"

A smile was slowly spreading across Rukia's face. "Ichigo, you are a genius!" she launched forward to hug him.

"Man, and I thought I had you pegged for all brawn and no brains," Renji grinned.

Ichigo scowled. "Asshole, I have so got brains! And I'd love to know what the hell it is you two are smiling about!"

The two shinigami shared a look. "Maybe you weren't wrong after all," Rukia smirked.

Ichigo growled.

"What you just said about the Opera House, about getting it up and running again so people can work and go to school there, it's just the kind of proposal we need to get the Kuchiki Council to approve funding for a project," Rukia laughed, beaming as ideas began to flash through her mind at lightning speed.

"You're totally right that places like opera houses are practically their own city. All Kuchiki Taichou would have to do is get his family to foot the bill for clean up and restoration, and initial hiring. Then, once things get going the Opera will run itself like any normal business and generate its own income, and the Kuchiki clan can just stay on as patrons," Renji added.

"Which would put them in a positive light in the public eyes of the Rukon," Rukia leaned back on her hands and cast her eyes at the ceiling as she fantasized. "It would be fantastic. The Rukon's not known for much in the way of artistry because people are just trying to survive, but this is our chance to give them that opportunity! Craftsman, painters, actors, musicians, composers, writers… they'd all be gathered under one roof! And the kids who want to do work study or just work could sleep in the dorms and not have to worry about freezing to death or—if they have spiritual powers—wonder where their next meal's going to come from. And they'd all have an opportunity for education beyond the basic math and reading skills taught in the Rukon schoolhouses."

Ichigo hated to burst her bubble, but he couldn't help but interrupt. "But, I thought the whole 'Phantom' legend was a sore spot with the nobles because of that unsolved murder. Wouldn't that just make them want to see the Opera House rot, as opposed to fixing it up?"

Both shinigami practically deflated.

"Dammit, he's right," Renji said. "I can't see the Kuchiki elders wanting to risk making themselves unpopular with the other nobles or getting into a tiff with the family whose ancestor died."

"It would be risky," Rukia nodded. "That family's still around. They're not one of the Four Great Households, but they're right up there with the Kasumiouji clan for status. The Kuchiki elders would have to take that into consideration, and it might sway them to vote against the project just to keep face."

The room descended into dejected silence for a few moments. Ichigo had nothing to contribute to try and give them hope that there would be a way to make things work out, the politics of the noble clans being far beyond him. Renji frowned and glared at the floor hard enough to set it on fire if he'd had the ability, while Rukia rested her elbows on her knees and dropped her chin into her palms as she pouted.

It wasn't long though before Rukia straightened up again and smacked her fist into her palm.

"I don't care if there is a political risk. It's just too good an idea to pass up," she declared. "You said it yourself Ichigo—there's no such things as ghosts in the Soul Society. What happened centuries ago was tragic, but all the people who were involved back then are gone now. The ghost—if he was even real—is gone. The past isn't going to repeat itself if people get the Opera House back up and running, and it'll do so much good! It _is_ a waste to just leave it there, and I'm at least going to _try_ to get Nii-sama to agree to it before we let it go and try to come up with something else."

Renji carded a hand through his hair. "I'll back you if you want, but just in case—don't get your hopes up. I have a feeling this is going to be easier said than done. Kuchiki Taichou's going to probably need to pull some very fancy verbal footwork before those elders will give the 'okay'."

Rukia smiled confidently. "Then it's a good thing Nii-sama is Nii-sama."

**~*~TBC…~*~**

** A/N****: Well, four months after the bunny bit, it's finally up and running. Next time- Rukia and Renji return to the Seiretei, and we get to see what Byakuya thinks of Rukia's idea…**

** Of course if you want to see more, please review. **

** Chapter Notes****:**

** 1. Just a note on the publication date(s) of '_Le Fantôme de l'Opéra'. _The original novel was written as a serialization and published in the French newspaper "Le Gaulois", beginning with its first installment on September 23, 1909 to its conclusion on January 8, 1910. The following year, 1911, saw its translation and first printing in English.**

** 2. I have to give credit where credit is due—the title of Chapter 1 was paraphrased from a quote by Marguerite Henry, in her beloved children's book 'Misty of Chincoteague'. **


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